Best Administrator, Ideal CM are the names of the awards ‘conferred’ on the long-serving Chief Minister of Odisha in the recent past. In fact, the ‘conferment’ of ideal CM award was splashed all over in some national dailies, published from Delhi, with full front page advertisements. However, happenings in the state over the past few months would show that Mr Patnaik is neither the “Best Administrator” nor an “Ideal CM”. Had it been the case, a 14 years old tribal girl belonging to one of the poorest districts of the State, a victim of gang rape allegedly by four men in uniform, that came to limelight in October last year would not have committed suicide on January 22, just a day after Mr Patnaik was ‘conferred’ with the “Ideal CM” award by a Pune-based institute. What is more worrying is that for long four months the police department which is under the Chief Minister, who is also the Home Minister of the State, miserably failed to give justice to the rape victim.
The deceased tribal girl, a class IX student, on October 10, 2017 while returning from school in Kunduli in the Koraput district was waylaid by four persons in uniform and was gang-raped. Though the Police registered a case of rape and put it in the category of “Red Flag” as is done for heinous offences like rape, little progress was made in unearthing the case. The victim was examined in four different hospitals, and if allegations are to be believed, she underwent treatment as well. However, nothing came about. Once the issue gained attraction and a complaint was filed with the State Human Rights Commission. The commission directed for a report to be submitted by the DGP, apart from directing a payment of Rs 50,000/- as interim compensation. The State Government, however, handed over the case to the crime branch in the month of November. The ordeal of the tribal girl didn’t end though and bizarrely the Human Right Protection Cell (HRPC) of the Odisha Police said that there was no truth to the allegation made by her and the Police denied any evidence of gang rape.
Anjana Mishra rape case
Anjana Mishra rape case was a high-profile rape case that occurred in state of Orissa (India) in 1999. Anjana Mishra, estranged wife of an Indian Forest Service officer, was raped on 9 January 1999. The case had created a furore in the State with Anjana accusing the then Chief Minister JB Patnaik and his friend former Advocate-General of Orissa Indrajit Ray of having played a role in the incident.[1] The rape case spoiled the party’s image. The party president Sonia Gandhi replaced the Chief Minister by Giridhar Gamang.
Faced with uncertainties and denial of justice, on November 18 she had attempted suicide prompting the Chief Minister to order a judicial probe. However, what is interesting is that till date such an inquiry has not seen the light of the day and doubts have been raised if such an order was in consonance with the law or was it a mere eyewash.
In the meantime on being
directed by the NHRC to file an action taken report, the State Crime Branch in its December 14 response submitted that in a bid to hide her affairs with a minor boy, the deceased had levelled false allegations of gang rape by four uniformed personnel. The report further went on to say that the deceased demanded the minor boy to marry her and on being refused tore her school uniform and threatened the boy that she would level rape charges. As a result the minor boy agreed and so as to hide the facts about her torn uniform, the tribal girl hatched the theory of gang rape by men in uniform.
The report also says that the tribal girl was examined in four different hospitals that ruled out any sign of rape. However, the report of the State Crime Branch is not beyond pale of doubt in view of the findings of the State Forensic Laboratory, which in its preliminary report found traces of semen in the undergarments of the victim. However, the case took a curious turn when in its final report, the same laboratory denied such findings and all these twists and turns gave rise to more questions than answers.
What makes the entire episode murkier is the allegation levelled by the now deceased tribal girl’s family members that the police had threatened them to withdraw the case or face dire consequences.
The suicide of the tribal girl sparked widespread protests by the BJP and the Congress giving separate bandh calls on January 25 and demanded handing over of the case to the CBI. However, the Chief Minister seems to be non-committal and despite his tall claims of “work and safety” to women of the State has not lived to the expectations of the people. Rather than providing succour to the family of the deceased, his party, as alleged by his opponents, expelled a sitting Member of Parliament in a bid to divert attention from the suicide of the tribal girl. However, the demand for an impartial enquiry and handing over the case to CBI has risen in the past week putting the State Govt., in a peculiar situation where its options are seemingly limited.
The cases of this nature are not new to the state. Not in the distant past, during 1999, another rape had shaken the then ruling Congress. The Government and the State Police had found themselves in an embarrassing situation when the CBI faulted its officials for manipulating forensic report and it led to the fall of the then ruling establishment. Whether this incident will snowball into an issue of change of establishment is a question that would be answered in the next elections. But one thing is now certain that the Chief Minister, for all practical purposes, cannot flaunt his award of “Best Administrator” or “Ideal CM” unless he acts swiftly and gives justice to “Nirbhaya’ of Odisha.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan criticised the Chief Minister saying “Is this what an ideal Chief Minister does? If Naveen Babu (Naveen Patnaik) is even a bit sensitive about the case, then he must take action. It is an extremely sad incident,”
(The writer is a Delhi-based lawyer and a columnist)
-Sandeep Mahapatra
